I am trying to understand how to output using the popular CRF method. MW does not use this. It seems "VBR constant quality" is the same thing, as suggested by an older thread: http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbs/list/lang/en/board/TVMW5/keyword/crf/topic/64203#topic64203

However: the 0-100 quality setting seems to have absolutely no effect on the output's file size. Tried higher and lower settings. Then, there is the strange "maximum bitrate" setting, which doesn't make sense for CRF use, which is supposed to define on its own the needed bitrate, solely based on the quality setting.

I'm not sure what's going on, and wish Pegasys used the well-documented 0-51 CRF output numbers.

Some more extensive testing reveals that the quality settings does indeed affect output size. Things a bit more clear now.

hi, yes i agree with you, CRF or RF as i know it can be beneficial, however how do you know which RF quality factor to set for any given input file.

the free handbrake and Xmedia Recode programs are wonderful conversion tools, and both use an RF quality factor mode for setting your output quality, or you can use the Bitrate method, but oddly both those programs use a totally different method to calculate the RF bitrate, so if you encode the same file using the exact same settings, including the same RF quality factor, one will output the file at a much higher bitrate than the other, so this is where you must be very careful using the RF method, you need to know and understand how your given software sets this formula.

i just started using TMPGEnc but only for converting 1080/50p m2ts files from my camera to dvd compliant mpeg2 format so i use a constant bitrate setting of 8.0Mbps.

my regular preferred software is Video ReDo and that has built in quality presets that does the work for you based on pre-determined output quality settings, and thats the way it should be done, not have to guess what bitrate your output file is going to have.

cheers

The 0-100 quality setting is a feature that was first introduced in previous (ie. no longer available) TMPGENC products. The value has nothing to do with CRF values. In fact, I only found out about 0-100 from forum posts dated about 2004 when people were still making SVCDs. From what I could make out, 100 is the best, 0 is the worst and 50 is the default. In those days people would try values above 75 but they might end up with bigger than expected files. You just have to try a value and see if you can live with the file size. In the end I just gave up and went back to setting 2-Pass VBR with a bitrate setting ... or I use another tool that accepts CRF

When will H.265 HEVC encoding of 4K media be implemented in Video Mastering Works?

When that codec becomes standard for home use, which is most likely not to happen within the next couple of years any way.
The current situation is that there is an extreme lack of televisions, videocards and computer screens who actually fully supports it, most computers downscale it any way to 1080p because that is the maximum support they have.

hi, yes consumer 4k is still way off in the distance, and i predict 4k for home use actually wont ever eventuate in any reality anyway.

look at bluray, i do not know anyone who owns a bluray player, let alone them owning bluray movies.

some people i know still have a 5 year old standard HD tv (1366x768) and still have a dvd player connected to it, and still buy or hire dvd movies.

fact is, a commercial dvd will upscale and play beautifully on a HD tv, even a full HD tv, and while people are happy with this, there is no way they will move on.

now, i am a videographer, i shoot weddings, and i never burn any wedding to bluray disc, because none of my clients want it, for the reason i gave above.

i shoot my videos in 1080/50p avchd (mts) and after editing, i mux the video to 1080/50p in an MP4 container (for better playback support) which doesnt re-encode the video, and the client is given a copy of their video, and the original camera files on a 500gb usb powered portable hdd to play back on their HD tv because al HD tv's now have its own built in media player.

oddly, every now and then a client will ask me to convert the video to dvd for some of their family or friends because they still have older tv's and dvd players to watch the video on.

so, where does all this leave 4k format, well if bluray still has not become mainstream, 4k most definately wont ever become the future standard.

heck, if i thought 4k was going to be the future for consumer use, i would already be shooting weddings on a 4k Black Magic Cinema Camera in very high bitrte ProRes or RawDNG format.

isnt going to happen while people still have dvd players......cheers

I have downloaded the trial version and I want to test it by creating a BD from several mkv files.
The thing is that the files are loaded ok but just the video, the audio part is not recognized as if the file had no audio.
I understand mkv files are supported so why dos this happen?
Thanks a lot.

MKV is a container format, so while the MKV container is supported, the contents (which can be anything) may not be. The audio may be DTS or something else that isn't supported.

Thanks for your answer, just like you said, it's DTS format.
I never thought DTS wouldn't be supported, specially in a BD creator software.
Do you by chance know a way to convert this particular type of audio into another format wich is supported?
Thanks again

Instal Haali Media Spliter and FFDSHOW 32 bit version, then go in to the renderer settings of TAW5 and remove every marker, eccept the one at Direct Show.
That gives DTS support input, but not output though.

The free and excellent eac3to tool can handle DTS (and DTS-HD MA) conversions beautifully. You will however need to install the proper DTS codec to do it. Check the doom9.org eac3to thread (first post) for more info.

I have downloaded the trial version and I want to test it by creating a BD from several mkv files.
The thing is that the files are loaded ok but just the video, the audio part is not recognized as if the file had no audio.
I understand mkv files are supported so why dos this happen?
Thanks a lot.

DTS audio, not supported by TVMW5 unless you tweak it to use the external renderers Haali Media Splitter and FFDSHOW 32bit version.

I have an MKV project I'm working on with DTS audio file. Want to transcode the x264 video and audio to create a AVCHD DVD. I have been using MeGUI to convert DTS multi-channel audio to AC3. I then bring the x264 vid and ac3 audio into
MW5 to transcode for Author Works 5 smart rendering.

Your way sounds much easier.

I already have Haali-splitter and FFDShow installed in my system.

Can you guide us to info as to how to configure MW5 to use the external filters
you are using?

Many Thanks,

dave

If you rename a video file that's used in a DVD/BD project, and then subsequently try to make changes to the project, this message comes up:

"File C:\[path]\[file].mpg can not be opened."

For the life of me, I can't figure out how to point Authoring Works 5 at the renamed file. Is there a way? Or would I have to re-import the video, thus losing all the careful chaptering and settings? (The same seems to go for moved files, which is a nightmare when working with videos spread across numerous hard drives.)

Please tell me I'm missing something obvious! Can I point Authoring Works 5 at the correct file if it loses track of it? If not, how do I turn this into a feature request? This seems a pretty basic omission to me.

I get an error box that has a "Browse..." button at the bottom which allows you to select the file.

There is a perpetual problem with converting videos of different frame rates in many of the Pegasys products including the MW5. If you take for examples a video with the frame rate of 23.976 or 24 and try to convert it to the 25 fr standard it always results in a jerky output. It is well visible if the movie contains smooth transitions like panning where there is some easy to notice image continuity.

Is there anything that can be set in the options to fix this?

This is definitively one the programs' weaknesses. I don't think you can do something with the settings to help. Pegasys needs to implement a frame blending filter, that creates the most natural results.

The ultra expensive Adobe Premiere has such a feature, but the result is not that great. Motion is smooth (no jerkiness) but also blurred and unnatural.

The free madVR video renderer, has a stunning "smooth motion" feature that works perfectly - in real time, too! Something like that is required here.

hi, can i ask why you would even want to change the framerate anyway, and of coarse the video will suffer, especially if you go from say 60p to 30p as some people do.

i shoot wedding video in 1080/50p avchd @ 28Mbps and i never change the framerate, and i choose 50p because it is far better for shooting videos where the camera does a lot of panning work (as i do) and where the camera has to be carried on a hand held rig while on the move, it just offers far smoother playback than 25p, and this is very well documented.

i live in australia, and our cameras shoot 25p or 50p, and a guy i know bought a 60p camera from usa, and he actually re-convers his 60p video to 25p (not 30p as he should use) and he wonders why his video is playing all jerky, yet his camera shoots 1080/30p anyway.

you should always keep the same framerate, or at least if you down convert, it must be half of the original framerate.

cheers

Is it possible to encode a video in reverse (i.e. - the video would be encoded so that the video plays in reverse or from backward-to-forward?

Just found the solution. The "Speed" Filter has an option to reverse the video. Select this filter and check the "reverse" option and the video will be reversed during encoding.

This behavior just started, about ten minutes into encoding a movie; e.g a mkv to MP4, the system freezes up (nothing moves on the screen) and no amount of mouse click or ctrl+alt+del helps to unfreeze the system. So I got to re-start several times to get the pc to bootup. Anyone has seen anything like this before. I'll probably uninstall and go back to the earlier version.

I am running WIN 8.1.

Windows 8.1 is your problem. I have heard about a LOT of people who has problems with all sorts of softwares after they upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1
Looks like it has a general compatible problem with a broad variaty of softwares, but that can then be used as a warning to others who has Windows 8: DON'T upgrade to 8.1

Oh! really! well..its kind of too late to go back to 8. I'll just ignore video editing for awhile. thanks for the reply.

hi, its not windows 8.1 causing your problem, its more likely hardware related, and i wish people would stop implying that win 8.1 is not compatible with software when it is.

8.1 is exactly the same as 8.0 except when they made 8.0 they removes some features that were in windows 7, and everyone complained about it, so they were forced to release au updated version to put those missing features back in it, otherwise it is still the same as win 8.0.

as for not being compatible, thats rubbish, i have dozens of programs that i had for several years, and they all work with windows 8 or 8.1, because 8 was developed using the same code and driver base from win 7.

your pc has a hardware issue causing it to lock up (could be lack of ram) but not likely software.

cheers

When I import Quicktime reference files (.mov) containing interlaced DNxHD video, TVMW5 defaults the settings for this source as "progressive".
Tools like Mediainfo correctly report the video as interlaced.
Why isn't TVMW5 detecting the correct interlace mode in such cases ?

(Occasionally I forget to check and correct this, the result is visibly degraded video because interlaced source video is treated as progressive and eventually transcoded to interlaced output.)

Could be a bug or it could be that the header info in the file is wrong. TMPGEnc software usually only looks at the header info, so if that's incorrect, you'll need to correct it in the clip properties window.

But MediaInfo does see the Scan Type as Interlaced !
So the header seems correct ?

MediaInfo might also look at the actual file itself to determine the actual scan type. I seem to recall it showing both the actual and reported stats if they were different, but don't quote me on that.

It could also be a bug in TMPGEnc. I would contact support about it.

if the TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 4 can run on windows 2008R2?

I want to add a simple image overlay on top of my video. The image will be stationary on top throughout the video. I do not see a filter that will do this. Is this possible?

There is no filter for this, but it can be done in timeline editing mode.

Simply add a new layer above your clip and add your image to that layer. Position and resize the image to where you want it to be in the preview pane and adjust the length of the clip to however long you need it to be (in your case, as long as the video).

I need to cut a section out from the start and end of a video. Can I trim and save using TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 without having to re-encode it? I don't want to lose any quality. The Format step is asking for the encoding format and I'm trying to match best I can based on the clip details, but I'm not sure I'm getting all the specs right.

No, TVMW5 is an encoder, first and foremost; it will re-encode everything you put into it.

TMPGEnc Authoring Works 5 and TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 4 have smart rendering support (i.e. lossless editing) but only certain formats are supported. In the case of TAW5, it must be a DVD/BD/AVCHD compliant format.

hi, TMPGEnc doesnt have "smart rendering" like some other programs do, where you can import a file and trim it out, then "mux" it back to the exact same file with no re-encoding.

smart rendering even allows you to import say a 1080/50p avchd (mts) file from your camera, and output it within seconds to an mp4 or mkv container without re-encoding it.

its a shame all encoding software doesnt have it.

Message me if you want to know a program that does it.